Marketers and academics have conducted extensive research on consumer behavior and psychology, proposing many related models. In this article, we will share the AIDMA model, a consumer decision-making psychological model that has had a profound impact on both marketing theory research and practice.
Human decision-making is a complex and intricate process, where emotions and reason interact and pull in different directions. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt uses the metaphor of the "rider and the elephant" in his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion to illustrate this.
Haidt compares human psychology to a two-part system: one part is the "rider," representing our rational, conscious thinking and control center, which attempts to plan, decide, and guide our behavior in alignment with morals and logic. The other part is the "elephant," representing our emotions, intuition, impulses, and most unconscious mental activities. The elephant is powerful and difficult to tame, often driven by instincts and feelings, sometimes ignoring the rider’s guidance. Haidt points out that although we often believe the rider is the dominant force in our behavior, in reality, the elephant often takes control, especially when faced with strong emotions or temptations. The rider might know what is right, but the elephant may deviate due to external stimuli or internal desires, causing rational judgment to fail. Therefore, understanding and influencing the elephant (i.e., our emotions and intuitions) is critical to changing behavior, rather than relying solely on the rider (rational thinking).
The interaction between rationality and emotion plays a crucial role in marketing, as they both drive consumer behavior decisions. By integrating rational product features and cost-effectiveness information to strengthen logical judgment, while also leveraging emotional strategies such as brand stories and emotional connections, marketers can build deep and attractive customer experiences. This integrated approach not only enhances the persuasive power of information and facilitates purchasing decisions but also deepens the emotional bond between the brand and consumers, fostering higher loyalty. In the increasingly personalized and fast-changing market environment, balancing and skillfully using these two forces has become a core strategy for businesses to effectively communicate, adapt to changing demands, and maintain a competitive edge.
As a result, marketers and researchers have extensively studied consumer behavior and psychology, proposing various models such as the AIDMA model, AISAS model, Hawkins Consumer Decision Process model, TRA (Theory of Reasoned Action), TPB (Theory of Planned Behavior), 5A model, HEART model, JTBD (Jobs-to-be-Done) theory, and more. Today, we’ll share the AIDMA model, which has had a significant impact on both marketing theory and practice.
01 What is the AIDMA Model?
In the late 19th century, with the rise of industrialization and the advertising industry, American advertising expert E.S. Lewis first proposed the AIDMA model to describe the psychological process consumers go through from encountering an advertisement to making a purchase decision. This model marked the beginning of the scientific analysis of consumer psychology and behavior.
AIDMA is an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, Memory, and Action, representing the psychological process consumers go through, from first noticing a product or message to finally taking the purchasing action.
Attention: This is the stage when the consumer first comes into contact with the product or advertisement. The main goal is to attract the potential customer's attention through creativity, uniqueness, or emotional resonance. For example, an eye-catching outdoor billboard using bright colors, interesting visual elements, or engaging slogans to draw the attention of passersby.
Interest: Once attention is gained, the next step is to spark the consumer’s interest, encouraging them to learn more about the product. This is often achieved by showcasing the product's unique selling points or providing information that addresses consumer pain points. For example, in digital marketing, posting valuable content highly relevant to the target audience’s interests on social media, such as educational articles, fun quizzes, or interactive Q&A, can effectively trigger user interest.
Desire: Building on interest, marketers need to create a strong desire for the consumer to want to own or experience the product. This is typically achieved through emotional marketing or showcasing product use cases. For example, using story-driven ads to show how a product improves users’ lives, or utilizing influencers to share their experiences, can evoke the desire to purchase.
Memory: In order to encourage future action, brand information must leave a lasting impression on the consumer. Repeated exposure, brand stories, and strong visual recognition systems (such as iconic logos or colors) help strengthen memory. In digital marketing, retargeting ads, which show products repeatedly to users who have already shown interest, can reinforce the memory.
Action: The final stage is prompting the consumer to take purchasing action. This requires lowering the purchasing threshold, such as simplifying the shopping process, offering coupons, or providing limited-time discounts. An example of event marketing would be creating interactive experience zones, such as product trial areas or photo spots, combined with on-site discounts to encourage purchase.
In the 20th century, as marketing theory and practice matured, the AIDMA model was widely applied in advertising design, sales strategies, and brand building. Many businesses and advertisers utilized this model to design attention-grabbing ads, stimulate consumer interest, cultivate purchasing desire, strengthen brand recall, and ultimately drive purchasing action, making it a core component of marketing courses in academic structures.
02 How to Apply the AIDMA Model in Marketing Work?
The AIDMA model reveals the psychological journey consumers go through from first encountering product information to making a purchasing decision. Each stage is a critical point in the consumer decision-making process, and marketing strategies must be tailored to each stage, interconnecting them to maximize marketing effectiveness.
Here, we’ll explain the application of the AIDMA model using a fictional ready-to-drink coffee brand as an example.
Marketing Context:
In the fast-paced modern world, consumers increasingly seek convenience and quality. An international coffee brand, understanding this trend, decided to combine its professional coffee-making skills with the convenience of ready-to-drink beverages, launching a ready-to-drink coffee series aimed at offering high-quality coffee enjoyment anywhere, anytime.
In terms of marketing strategy, the brand chose to rely on the AIDMA model to carefully design every marketing step to ensure that brand messages effectively reach consumers and become deeply ingrained in their minds.
Strategy and Execution:
Attention
The first priority is to capture consumers' attention, ensuring that they notice the brand or product among many competing messages. The brand placed creative outdoor ads at high-traffic public transportation stations and commercial districts, using unique art installations and captivating visuals, such as an interactive exhibition simulating the growth of coffee beans, to attract passersby’s attention. They also launched a social media challenge to quickly expand brand exposure with creative content.Interest
Once attention is gained, content marketing is used to spark consumer interest and get them to learn more. The brand partnered with renowned baristas and lifestyle influencers to share the coffee-making process, the story behind the product, and various ways to enjoy it via live streams and short videos, triggering curiosity and desire to explore the brand and its products.Desire
To cultivate a strong desire for the product, transforming interest into a want to own it, the brand introduced seasonal limited-edition packaging and flavors, such as a spring cherry blossom series, paired with online flash sales and exclusive offline store releases to create a sense of scarcity. Additionally, by offering point redemption systems and exclusive member discounts, they sparked purchasing desire and enthusiasm for collecting.Memory
To leave a lasting impression on consumers and ensure the brand is remembered at crucial moments, the brand opened pop-up experiential stores in major cities, designed in the style of a classic coffeehouse. This allowed consumers to experience the ready-to-drink coffee while immersing themselves in the brand’s unique coffee culture and ambiance, reinforcing brand recognition through iconic visual elements and slogans.Action
Finally, simplifying the purchase process and providing enough incentives to encourage consumers to complete their purchases. The brand optimized its online shopping platform to offer one-click purchasing and fast delivery services, as well as location-based services to push nearby purchase locations, simplifying the purchase journey. Additionally, through intelligent recommendation algorithms, personalized product recommendations were offered based on the consumer’s purchase history and preferences, promoting repeat purchases and ensuring a seamless transition from desire to action.
By systematically applying the AIDMA model, the brand was able to build a bridge in consumers' minds from awareness to loyalty, with each carefully designed stage deepening the consumer’s connection with the brand and effectively driving product sales and market share.
03 The AIDMA Model Must Evolve with the Times
As we can see, the AIDMA model helps marketers systematically plan and implement strategies to guide consumers through the entire process from awareness to purchase, especially in traditional marketing environments.
Entering the 21st century, particularly with the rise of the internet and social media, consumer behavior patterns have significantly changed. However, the basic principles of the AIDMA model still provide an essential foundation for modern marketing strategies and have been given new life, giving rise to new consumer behavior models like AISAS (Attention-Interest-Search-Action-Share) and SICAS (Sense-Interest-Connect-Act-Share) that better reflect the digital age.
Additionally, integrating the AIDMA model with other theoretical models (such as TRA, TPB, Jobs-to-be-Done, etc.) has become a trend. Marketers are attempting to use multiple theories to understand the complex and changing consumer decision-making process more comprehensively. With the application of big data, artificial intelligence, and other technologies, empirical research on the AIDMA model has become more refined, enabling more precise tracking and analysis of consumer behaviors and psychological changes at each stage.
In the digital age, the AIDMA model needs to be adjusted and supplemented in combination with new technologies, new platforms and changes in consumer behavior. Marketers should also develop marketing strategies that are more in line with modern consumer habits based on actual conditions.
